Alzeimer's Concert

Thanks to those who were able to come and support the concert. Sue and I enjoyed it, just a shame that the music system didn't work for the finale, we felt really sorry for the performers. There was a very talented local rock band called In the Red - a tad loud unless you are young and trendy like me. The theatre was almost full so well done to the charity  and all their supporters.

Well Done!

It was my great pleasure on Tuesday evening, on behalf of the club, to formally congratulate Steve Elms for his Paul Harris Award which had been presented to him by District last week for his work with Fun Day. A worthy recipient if ever there was one. Well done Steve.

Fortunately, we had Chas at club with his posh camera to also get a picture of our victorious winners of the Pepper Pot Golf Challenge held in France. Unlike the European Ryder Cup team, we did retain the trophy so congratulations to Geoff and his team for another excellent performance. I think they also enjoyed themselves by the look on their faces!



Tom Corkery gave us an excellent talk about life and working in Dubai which he did for a couple of years. Some brilliant little anecdotes such as having someone to clean your sunglasses for you and having weddings that last three days with no women invited including the bride.
I make no comment as this is on the web!

It was a shame that less than 20 members were at club night on Tuesday. I have noticed a decline in numbers since I became President, this is beginning to concern me particularly as the standard and variety of speakers has been excellent. Perhaps it is me or am I becoming paranoid?!

On the subject of speakers I went to visit Denise and her husband Stan today (Thursday) who has a very serious form of Alzheimers Disease. Both will be at club on 28th Oct and Denise will start her talk with a clip from a TV programme that featured them both. As someone who knew Stan before he was ill, I found it very difficult to watch without tears. Even for those who do not know them I think you will be very moved. I am glad that some of our members answered the call and are also supporting the local Alzheimer's Society by attending a show at the Hazlett Theatre on Saturday. I am sure we will enjoy a really good evening.

Finally.... I emptied the Well again this week. This time I went armed with surgical gloves bearing in mind some of the rather unpleasant articles which were thrown in last week. (see earlier posts). Alongside the £27.75 in coins were the usual drinking straws, bottle tops and crisps. In addition this time we had vinegar soaked chips and some cake which had clearly been squeezed through the two inch diameter hole! Once again thanks to the users of Maidstone Leisure Centre for their generosity (I mean that seriously for those who donated and used the well properly) and no thanks to the remainder of the erks who have found themselves an amusing pastime of defacing something that is there to help others less fortunate in the community. They are probably the same ones who have stolen a wheelchair that we use for our disabled swimmers each week, but that's another story.

Demelza House

It is the 10th birthday of Demelza House. Local Rotary clubs were invited there for the staff to say thank you for support over the years. I recall going there many years ago but I was glad this time to go along with Sue and Norman to represent the club there tonight. It was an interesting and very enlightening evening and we were so impressed with what they have achieved in these 10 years. Personally, of course Sue and I couldn't help but relate our recent tragedy to the situation that the children and their families go through. However, it does seem that every step of the mainly tragic route they go through has been extremely well thought through at Demelza to help ease their burden .

One club presented £800 whilst there and Dave Hatcher from Medway asked for support for a combined Rotary project to send kids and their families to Disneyland. I offered Riverside's help in principle and we'll maintain contact to see just what is needed.

Air Ambulance

Our club night speaker tonight was a volunteer from the Kent Air Ambulance Trust. Only about 20 attended but it was an informative talk, a lot of questions and interest. I am finding it useful to deal with the business at suitable gaps in the evening so once again we finished at a reasonable time. (9.30 tonight). One blunder on business, I was passing on a message from the Medway club about a forthcoming speaker about trains. Club then reminded me that we have this speaker ourselves in a few weeks time! Particularly embarrassing as I am the one who keeps telling them to keep an eye on the website programme! Oh well, it got a laugh so all was well.
Spoke to Martin, our plan now is to ride the tandem to Dordrecht next year dressed in 1930's clothes, might try and do it to raise funds if possible.

Have also provisionally booked the Grangemoor Hotel for President's evening on Friday 5th June 2009. More details to follow.

Make - A -Wish

Last year our then DG Denis Spiller asked all club Presidents to do something they have always wanted to do and in doing so raise funds for Make - a - Wish an excellent charity that allows youngsters who are seriously ill to do something special that they want. Richard our IPP wanted to demolish a building and raised over £600 by waving a sledge hammer over the old Opthalmic Hospital and smiling nicely for the camera. Last night his efforts and those of all the other past presidents were rightly recognised and applauded in a great evening at Salamons House Southborough. £60000 was raised by the combined events of the clubs throughout the District. Sue and I attended as Richard could not make it. We were on a table with members of Tenderden Rotary Club, and we had a great time. The meal was first class, Graham Clarke our local famous artist attended and the cheque was handed over to the charity. The evening was rounded off by a short but superb classical trio playing some 18th century music which blended in extremely well in the lovely old Victorian theatre. I was apprenensive about going because of the cost, but in the end both Sue and I were glad we went.

MGS Speech Day

I was pleased along with Sue, to be invited by Neil Turrell to his last Senior Speech Day before he retires next year. We had a super afternoon and it was good to have two past president's of Riverside prominent on the stage. Richard Ratcliffe was Guest of Honour and gave a nostalgic speech as an Old (very old!) Maidstonian and both he and Neil were able to give our club a plug on more than one occasion. It was my first visit to the school for many years, my youngest son left there some 15 years ago and I retired as a School Governor around that time. Co-incidentally, or not, it was then that Richard, myself and the late David Wood joined other similar groups who were all suitably rounded up by Mike Whitfield and his merry gang to form the Riverside Rotary Club. There were was quite a presence of Rotarians at Speech Day so all in all we did very well. Let's hope that some of those remarkable young people who we saw and listened to, one day become Rotarians themselves.

Business Meeting

I went to the Leisure Centre today to remove the first two weeks takings from the Wishing Well. There was around £22 ish plus 3 straws 2 bottle tops , a fag end and half a pint or so of (hopefully!) orange juice poured into the well. I washed the sticky coinage before handing over to our treasurer who will count it in due course. If we make £10 a week on average we should get about £500 per year if it stays there. We can top that up at other events, so hopefully we will cover the costs reasonably quickly and promote our Club at the same time.
Business meeting went well. We would have finished by 9.30 but we had a lot of discussion about Claire's Kenya project. It was agreed that we should budget for £5k to be made available when we have some funds raised. We still finished by 9.45, so OK I think. Maria and Clare want to run a games evening at the snooker club, plenty of support so they will sort out a date and organise it. Fingers crossed, things going reasonably well at present, we just need to get some funds in so we can spend it on our projects.

Council Meeting

Council meeting last night. 7 from 12 attended and there was a lot of business. It is my intention to keep such meetings as short as possible but as we only hold them once every two months I suppose it is inevitable that there will be a lot to discuss. Last night's meeting didn't finish until around 10.00 pm. A lot of discussion on club finances this time and that is not something that can be shortened when council members need to discuss fully. No problems, more clarification of yearly accounts. Business meeting next week so all matters raised have to be fully debated before we go to club. A good proposal has come in for a sponsored walk by International committee. It is good to see that the groundwork has been done. The Council has given it the go ahead in principle. We certainly need some more money spinning events on the table. I will push that to club next week.

Stuart

I was just so proud of my son Stuart who was our club guest speaker last night. His Mum came to give him support and she was so glad she could be there. Stuart told us about the work of COSMIC and the events he and the family have been involved with since Grace died. He was understandably emotional when he talked about his daughter but he composed himself so well and gave an excellent presentation. He finished by showing the video of London - Paris Cycle Ride which lightened the talk for him. Clive Carden gave an excellent vote of thanks and many members came up to Stuart afterwards and expressed their support and congratulations for giving such a good presentation which would not be easy for anyone who had recently lost a child. I don't think I could have done it.
In fact, I was nervous chairing the evening meeting as there was a Bradburn family presence and the nervousness showed according to my close advisers! Still as I will be making a substantial club donation to COSMIC this year I felt it appropriate that Stuart came to tell us all about the charity. This he did professionally but with with personal emotion as anyone would expect.

I also presented Lloyd with the Golf Cup he won recently, it has just been engraved so it was an appropriate time to hand it over formally at club. Well done again Lloyd.

Stabat Mater

Stabat Mater ? what is that all about? It's the name of a new choral work by composer Karl Jenkins. He is the guy who wrote the music to the advert with the boy swimming down for pearls - his music is a cross between Bach and Enya, well that's my assessment anyway. It involves a large choir and orchestra and our club along with the other Maidstone Rotary clubs will be promoting the event when it is performed on June 13th 2009. at teh Mote Hall. I went to a meeting with the President of Maidstone Rotary Dennis Fowle and Jeffrey Vaughan Martin who will produce the concert through his Jupiter workshops. He will be auditioning many youngsters to take part and it will be the opening event of the Maidstone Festival of Music next year. No financial risk to our club but we will need to sell tickets and help publicity. All profits will go to the Heart of Kent Hospice. I will tell club tonight and go to Council tomorrow for formal lift off.

Whilst at theLeisure Centre this morning I checked the Wishing Well, it's still in one piece and has attracted a small amount of copper and even some silver. I got some youngsters to have a go and that attracted more interest. I am still convinced that occasional promotion visits from our members will help considerably.

Tonight at club our guest speaker is my son Stuart. He will talk about COSMIC and the fundraising he has done over the past year and a half since his daughter Grace died. £55 k raised for the paediatric unit at St Mary's Hospital Paddington is fantastic and it has also helped him and our family to cope with our tragic loss. Hopefully his talk will end on a lighter note when we play the video of the pictures taken on the London to Paris Cycle Ride that we did in June.


Yesterday I popped into Inner Wheel and gave them a cheque for £550 as their contribution for their help at County Show.